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Myra Thomas began her career in finance, eventually becoming AVP for a Lloyd’s of London intermediary. That background lends itself well to covering the gamut of tech and business news stories. During her 20-year journalism career, she’s served as an editor, reporter, author, researcher, and adjunct English lecturer. She lives in Northern New Jersey with her husband, two daughters, and two wily Cairn Terriers.

U.S. technology companies plan to add headcount over the next 12 months though they remain concerned about the continuing lack of available tech talent, according to the second annual National Survey of Technology, Policy and Strategic Issues by the Technology Councils of North America and the Arizona Technology Council.

The report indicates that about two-thirds of the 1,700-plus C-level executives surveyed will hire new staff over the next 12 months. Small companies (74 percent) and medium firms (72 percent) were the most optimistic about hiring.

The Tech Talent Shortage

Despite the hiring plans, 69 percent of executives see a shortage in the quantity and quality of tech talent available. Twenty five percent describe the shortage as “significant.” In the Midwest and West, 72 percent said there is a shortage, while the Northeast (67 percent) and South (65 percent) were slightly lower.

Growing business confidence and increasing expenditures were two other pieces of good news in the data. The survey revealed an improving sentiment about overall business conditions — at 56.4 on a 100-point scale compared to 46.3 a year ago. Additionally, 59 percent of the executives are planning to invest in new products or business lines over the next six months, with small (65 percent) and medium companies (62 percent) again leading the way. About 50 percent of the companies plan to increase expenditures on marketing, advertising and technology.

Biggest Threats

According to 44 percent of survey’s respondents, a general lack of confidence or economic paralysis are the biggest threats to business activity. Government regulation came in second at 42 percent. Fears about lower margins or a downward pressure on pricing increased from 22 percent in 2012 to 38 percent this year, placing it third on the list of concerns. One half of the medium and large companies were most concerned about margin and price issues.

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Why aren’t companies understanding the concept of training? It may seem like a lot of money to spend upfront but the rewards from this investment are unmeasurable. It escapes me how this process got lost in the shuffle? There are positions to be filled. There are very talented people looking for work, but could use a certain amount of training. This seems like a winning combination that could improve the economy expediently compared to waiting for the perfect employee to fill a chair.

Right now, they are able to muddle by without hiring somebody. They’re not doing as well as they’d like, but they’re getting by.

If they hire somebody, they have to take more risk, and spend more money, and with no guarantee the person they hire is “right”. And if he/she is “wrong”, it’s more money again to terminate them.

OK, so you go hire somebody who’s “almost” perfect and you spend money to train him or her. What happens? Just about at the point where you’ve come to depend on this person, he/she discovers that training — that you paid for — is more valuable somewhere else.

At that point, you’re stuck. You’ve not only wasted your training money, you’re now in a worse position than before, because that person is not likely to choose the best timing for departure. They’ll leave you in the dust, just when you need them most. But that’s only “fair” really, because you’d terminate that person the instant it appears beneficial to the company.

That’s part of the problem. There is no loyalty. There’s no gratitude. Employees will leave on a moment’s notice. Employers will terminate on a moment’s notice. It’s expensive to hire, and it’s expensive to fire, and many companies would rather sit out the round than take the chance. So we’re left with a completely dysfunctional situation where competent workers can’t find jobs, and companies flush with cash can’t find workers.

Something has to give. You can bend things only so far, eventually something will break. I have no idea what is going to come out of all this, but mark my words, it isn’t going to be pretty.

When they say they can’t find technical talent- what they are really saying is they can’t find a software engineer with 3-8 years of experience that previously worked at Google whom is willing to take a crappy 3 month contract “lead position” in San Diego (where a house is 2 million dollars) for $50 an hour with no benefits that they can turn around and fire when their project is over.

The arrogance of silicon valley and the media really has no bounds today. How dare they make billions of dollars paying crappy wages and abusing our immigration system, then turn around and say that american engineers “aren’t talented enough” for them.

These CEO’s need to go to India, open their white collar sweat shops, then hop on the boat themselves since they don’t give a crap about this country anymore. Take congress with them and give us our country back.